the grey hardwood floor edit

Grey hardwood flooring comes in many different shades and lends itself to a modern, farmhouse or a rustic industrial interior.

Grey hardwood floors have been growing in popularity in the last few years as they are elegant, stylish and the colour can be carried throughout the house.

Grey wood floors usually sit in the mid colour tone range and hide dirt and scuff marks better than its lighter and darker counterparts.

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Image with thanks, by Dezeen

Grey floors will come in variety of styles and finishes, and the choices you make for each will depict the final product.

For example: What tone of grey do you like? Light white grey, taupe grey, cool blueish grey, perhaps a warm earthy grey or maybe a silver gunmetal grey?

How would you like the surface? Smooth, wire brushed, double wire brushed, distressed or tumbled?

What grade would you like? Prime - no knots, Rustic AB - some character and limited knots, Rustic B - heavy character and knots.

What width of board? 180mm, 220mm, 300mm, 450mm or you would opt for mixed widths.

Interior & image by Studio Indigo

What did your floor turn out like?

Was it a light grey with a heavy brush and plenty of knots on mixed width boards?

Or did you go ultra modern with gunmetal grey, smooth surface in prime on wide 450mm boards?

Most high end specialist hardwood flooring showrooms will usually let you tailor make the floor to your design.

Keep in mind when doing this that the colour will always slightly change depending on the choices mentioned above.

Interior & image by Studio Vero

Tips for choosing gray hardwood flooring

Here are the key things to consider when selecting gray hardwood floors

Solid vs Engineered

As a professional, I will always lean towards engineered boards.

The construction is far more stable than solid, therefore you can have wider boards, you can float them over sound proofing underlay and they can be installed over under floor heating.

There is often a misconception, one I had myself when I first started in the industry, that a solid board will last longer than an engineered board as you can sand it more.

This is incorrect. You can only ever sand down to where the tongue and groove profile is, regardless of the construction.

This top layer is an important feature to take note of.

For more information on Solid vs Engineered see my detailed blog post here.

interior design & image by Hazel Collins Design

Plank Width

Planks above 220mm are generally considered wide.

I usually advise my client not to go narrower than a 180mm unless they are looking for a very traditional interior.

I feel this is the sweet spot for a plank width as it's wide without overpowering the room.

Wider planks will make the space feel bigger but you need to have the space to carry it off because it's all about balancing proportion.

Imagine having a 3m x 3m room and laying a 450mm wide board - you will literally lay 7 boards. However if you have a large but narrow space, by using wider boards it will make the space feel larger as the room size can handle it.